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Thursday, December 10, 2015

1970s

By
this decade, the Dutch had caught up, with Ajax and Cruyff dominating Europe
with ‘Total Football.’ Remarkabley despite both nations’ dominance, the 1974
World Cup Final was the first time the nations met in the decade.

What
more can be said about a match for which books have been written about.

There
are some points to be discussed. When Holland were awarded and scored from the
penalty kick, not a single West German player had touched the ball.

It
was also known that Wim van Hanegem hated the Germans. His father, two brothers
and sister were all killed during the War. Johan Cruyf was booked at halftime
for arguing with the referee.

It
is also worth noting that this was the ONLY international match that Franz
Beckenbauer and Johann Cruyff faced one another in Internatioanl level.

The
following year the teams played in a friendly, but faced one another again in
the 1978 World Cup.

Johan
Cruyf had refused to attend the World Cup for unspecified reasons.

The
teams met again in the end of the year 1978. This was the first match on Dutch
soil since 1966.

1980s

By
the early 1980s, the Ducth were a fading force and the Germans were generally
better. The German win (with a Klaus Allofs hat trick) in the 1980 Euros
reflected that. Lothar Matthaus made his debut for West Germany in that match.

By
the time of their next match in 1986, Franz Beckenbauer was in cahreg of West
Germany.

The
Dutch gained revenge for the 1974 loss, by defeating the Germans in the
semifinals of the 1988 Euros in West Germany. Marco van Basten’s last minute
winner heralded the greatest moment of Gullit/van Basten generation. In fact
the Dutch celebrated that victory even more than the Final win vs. USSR a few
days later.

The
sides met again before the end of the decade as they were in the same World Cup
qualifying Group.

The
first match in October 1988 was a tense affair. After the scoreless tie, the
West German players refused to swap shirts in protest to the European
Championship semifinal in June, where Ronald Koeman was seen cleaning his
backside with Olaf Thon’s swapped jersey.

The
1989 match, the Dutch were fortunate to get an equalizer towards the end of the
match.